S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 97

August 2017 Goals

Where did July go? I had a lot to get through this month with my youngest turning 7 and tons of other things on my plate. Let’s see how I did with my goals.

What Happened With July’s Goals?

Write 40k on Daydreamer 4. I did not write 40k on Daydreamer 4. I think I started the month with about 15k and I ended with 40k. So, not bad. Not what I hoped for, but it took a while to find my stride with this book, understand where I was going with the narrative and battle through some first-draft self-doubt. The good news is that I plan to continue writing on it now that I have some momentum built up.

Launch CRASH LAND ON KURAI. I did this! And the launch went great. I have no regrets and nor am I disappointed or feeling like I should’ve done something differently. I’m pleased with the outcome and though I haven’t made much profit because of my ad spend, I’ve been selling books every day and KU pages-read have been actively coming in. Two thumbs up!

Finish reading up on plotting and Facebook ads. Done. I finished reading a book on Facebook ads and put it to use right away on CRASH LAND ON KURAI. The ads are doing well!

Read every day. I think I managed to do this. Between the non-fiction books I read and some fiction, plus reading my critique partner’s newest book, I read a lot!

Knit more. I haven’t knit a lot but I did knit some which is more than I can say for months past.

Walk more. I actually found that I worked on writing better when I wasn’t on the treadmill, which is weird. I may be better at editing on the treadmill than writing. Regardless, I did walk and I did write. Did I walk more? No. I took some days off this month due to weather and just needing some time off. Let’s look at the Runkeeper stats.

As you can see, I’m at 627 miles for the year so far. So even though I slacked a little in July, I’m still ahead of the game. It’s been 212 days of this year so far. Multiply that by 2.74 (the minimum I need per day to hit my goal) and the total is approximately 581 miles. I’m more than 40 miles past that. So I’m good. My rest days haven’t impeded on my goals!

As for the month, I just missed hitting the 2.7 miles needed per day. I should’ve walked 83.7 miles but I only walked 78. I hope to do better next month!

Enjoy summer. I continue to enjoy summer whenever it presents itself. We had some dreary days where it wasn’t as warm as I would like. But every day it was nice, I got out there and enjoyed it.

A Look Back at July

I’ve started doing these monthly videos! Hopefully I can keep this up because it was really fun.

Business Goals For August

Edit Hikoboshi 2. I want this book done by the end of the month and off to readers. It would be nice to have it ready to go for sale by early October, which I think I can hit. I’m pretty sure I can finish my edits by the 20th of this month. I like to walk and edit, so that should work out for me.

Keep writing 500 words a day on Daydreamer 4. 500 words is an easy goal and if I can hit that every day, I should be able to make a big dent in the book by the time I’m done with Hikoboshi 2 edits.

Personal Goals For August

Walking, reading, knitting, and enjoying summer. This is the last month of summer and I need to enjoy it as best I can. When school starts, so starts stress again. With my oldest starting middle school, I fear both for her and my free time which will, no doubt, be sucked up by shuttling her around to more activities than I can dream about now. So, now’s the time to enjoy the last days of blissful freedom even though I’ll be working like a madwoman.

Enjoy your August everyone!

The post August 2017 Goals appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – July 30, 2017

Another week has come and gone and it was fairly quiet around the blog. I thought about posting a Book Chat this past week, but just never got around to it. I was busy busy busy at home all week. Some days I was doing a million things. Others I was trying not to. Lol

On Monday, it was finally back to normal life. Now that all the parties for my youngest were done, I could concentrate on my own stuff. I stayed home and chilled. Worked on Daydreamer 4. Walked. The usual.

On Tuesday, I worked my 2nd of three shifts at the CSA in the afternoon. This was an easy week there because the woman I was working with was very industrious and insisted on doing most everything. Fine by me! I spent most of the afternoon baking up muffins. I made three dozen muffins, chocolate chocolate-chip zucchini muffins and peanut butter zucchini muffins. They’re now in the freezer and will make great additions to lunches in the fall.

On Wednesday, I had a chiropractor appointment and worked on writing. It was on this day that I crossed the 35k mark in Daydreamer 4!

On Thursday, I totally forgot to take a photo because the day didn’t go as planned. It was busy. I dropped the kids off at camp, walked 3 miles, showered, went to Whole Foods, grocery shopped, came home and got right to cooking. I made oven-roasted salsa and pasta sauce which took almost two hours. I finished with it and was ready to sit down and eat a very late lunch when my oldest called to come home from camp because she had a headache that was making her nauseous. It threw everything off.

On Friday, we were finally able to go to the pool after camp for the first time all week. The weather here has been unseasonably cool and it hasn’t made me happy. I much prefer it when it’s hot outside. So it was nice to go to the pool in the afternoon.

On Saturday, we had a busy morning with walking and gym and getting the youngest off to a birthday party. I cleaned up the house, read, and wrote. We spent the evening in and watched SPLASH as a family.

Writing has been going well, I think. I’ve been breaking my sessions of writing up into 500 word chunks and that seems to be working for me. I’m almost to the mid-point of Daydreamer 4 and almost to the end of July. Starting next week in August, I scale back to 500 words per day on Daydreamer 4 and start my editing of the next Hikoboshi book. It was good concentrating on Daydreamer 4 for a while. It gave me the kick-start I needed to really get the story going. But it’s time to concentrate on sci-fi again!

What else happened this week?

Sometimes an evening on the couch gets musical.

A good haul from the CSA this week!

Passed a big milestone on Daydreamer 4!

I saw this man sitting and fishing and I thought, “That’s the life.” Lol.

These were like tiny little fudgey brownies. YUM.

Cheers to the end of the week!!

Coming up this week: August begins so we’ll have a Goals post for the month. I hope to post a Book Chat during the second week of August since I have a lot of books for it!

The post Sunday Update – July 30, 2017 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – July 23, 2017

Well, finally, my last stressful week of summer is over! I got through the launch of CRASH LAND ON KURAI which went well and is currently holding a very decent rank (for me) on Amazon. It’s been weird seeing Kindle Unlimited pages-read come onto my dashboard that I’ve never seen before, and I assume that people are borrowing the book even if they’re not buying a lot of copies. Otherwise, I’m sure the book would be in the depths of the Amazon Sales Rank Dungeon. CRASH LAND ON KURAI has also been in the Top 50 of most of the Hot New Release genre charts this week, and for that I’m extremely grateful.

Okay, onward! Lots happened this week. Last Sunday, we had family over to celebrate my youngest’s birthday, so that was a day of entertaining and cleaning. Truly wiped me out.

On Monday, I worked on all of my ads for CRASH LAND ON KURAI, both on Facebook and Amazon. I prepped my newsletter for the next day and all of my Facebook and Twitter posts.

Tuesday was publication day! It was busy but fun, and not too stressful because I had everything ready ahead of time. I did take it easy, and I didn’t pressure myself to do too much. I spent most of the day at home until it was time to do my shift at the CSA location. Then we went to the pool in the afternoon.

Wednesday, it was back to work. I got the house in order until the cleaning ladies came, worked in the basement while they were here, and then we took the afternoon off from the pool so the kids could have their piano lessons.

Thursday, I had to go to the school camp to see all the fun stuff my kid was up to this summer, then I ran some errands, and worked in the afternoon at the pool.

Friday, I got my haircut in the morning, went grocery shopping, worked in the afternoon at the pool.

Saturday was another big day. My youngest had her big birthday party with all of her friends at her favorite gymnastics gym. I was stressed out putting it all together. This has become my job in the family, and I’m terrible at it! But I did my best, and I don’t think I screwed anything up. After it was over, we de-stressed at the pool (of course.)

This Sunday morning, I slept in a little, went for a walk and got rained on, and now I’ve been catching up on work stuff, reading through blogs, posting this update, and I hope to take a nap. It’s been raining, so no pool.

What else happened this week?

My husband and mother-in-law both love guitars.

I used some essential oils to help me get through the stress this week.

On release day, I added CRASH LAND ON KURAI to my vanity bookshelf and enjoyed a yummy breakfast.

I indulged in some ice cream this week.

Got this funny carrot this week!

My editor for SUMMER HAIKUS requested a paperback copy of it with the old cover, and I found one in my stash in the basement! It was nice to see it again.

Some days you need a treat, and that treat is a Mexican coke.

The gymnastics party was great. One kid ran past me screaming, “I’M SO EXHAUSTED!” and another came up to me to tell me it was the best party she had ever been to. Aw!

And in my park on my very wet walk, I saw this pretty guy flying around. I love butterflies.

It’ll be a quiet week on the blog as I plan to focus on writing Daydreamer 4 this week. Starting August 1st, I’m returning to the Hikoboshi series so I can edit the second book there, so I need to get as many words as I can in on Daydreamer 4.

Have a great week everyone!

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Teaser Thursday – Nebulas

It’s the last Teaser Thursday for CRASH LAND ON KURAI!!

Every time I write a book, I choose a persistent visual or descriptive theme to span the book or series. For SUMMER HAIKUS, it was water. For THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE, it’s farm or landscape descriptions. For the Hikoboshi Series, it’s going to be nebulas and stars. Yumi sees them in her dreams or near death, and they tend to follow her throughout the series as something that signals rightness or a correct path. Her love of the stars is both a blessing and a curse, as you see after you finish this book.

CRASH LAND ON KURAI Is Now Available and Teaser Tuesday!

CRASH LAND ON KURAI is now available!! Woo hoo!! It’s Teaser Tuesday again!! Purchase information is below…

Yumi is the most sarcastic character I’ve ever written. Generally, most of my characters have a sarcastic streak, just as I do, but I’ve always kept it toned down. Yumi is the first time I’ve just let it go. Let it ride. Not only is she sarcastic, but her journalistic tone is a delight. She draws upon her big vocabulary and area of expertise to describe situations she comes across. She’s a lot of fun to write! Especially when she tells it like it is, like in this teaser.

Want to order CRASH LAND ON KURAI? You can pick it up for a dollar off the retail price now on Amazon.com! Kindle Unlimited subscribers are now able to borrow the book using the Kindle Unlimited program.

Buy Crash Land on Kurai

Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited on July 18th!
(You’ll be able to choose your bookstore on the following page, if you have not chosen a default Books2Read store already.)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you love the book, and I’ll see you again on Thursday!

The post CRASH LAND ON KURAI Is Now Available and Teaser Tuesday! appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – July 16, 2017

Late day Sunday Update today! We had family over today to celebrate my youngest’s birthday. It was a fun-filled day of food, sun, and lots of talking.

The week went by pretty quickly. I really don’t remember much of it! I have to look back at my photos to see what happened. Lol.

Monday was a bit stressful. I had an all-day takeover in a very big reader group on Facebook… that I thought was on Tuesday. Oops! I hustled right away and got the day rolling with only a 15-minute delay. My takeover went really well though! I kept everyone chatting all day long, played lots of games and gave away a lot of books. I met new people and had a great time. No complaints. People were commenting on my posts well into later in the week! I obviously had an impact on them. I did some of my posts from the pool and treated the kids to a cool and easy evening there.

Tuesday was chill. We got our weekly vegetable share and spent the evening at the pool. The kids ate dinner there since my husband was working late. I had a giant salad at home later for dinner. Tuesday was Amazon Prime Day. I didn’t really sell any books but I got a great deal on something that’s hush-hush for the time being.

Teaser Thursday – Yumi’s Heart

It’s Teaser Thursday for CRASH LAND ON KURAI!!

When I started writing this book, I was reading a non-fiction book on building characters by James Scott Bell, and he suggested that you think back to your character being sixteen. What happened to them at sixteen that will influence them in years to come?

In Yumi’s case, when she was sixteen, she was totally in love with this guy, Takeji, but after bearing her soul to him, it turned out that he had been dating her twin brother on the side. Ouch. Though on the surface, she brushed it off, it sent her on a downward spiral of anger and confusion, and she never loved anyone again after that, though she tried to date other guys.

Going on this mission was supposed to help her heal and find some peace. It turns out it just makes her even more confused!

Want to pre-order CRASH LAND ON KURAI? You can pick it up for a dollar off the retail price now on Amazon.com! Kindle Unlimited subscribers will be able to borrow the book on July 18th.

Pre-order Crash Land on Kurai

Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited on July 18th!
(You’ll be able to choose your bookstore on the following page, if you have not chosen a default Books2Read store already.)

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you again next week!

The post Teaser Thursday – Yumi’s Heart appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Teaser Tuesday – Powerful

It’s Teaser Tuesday again!! Today, you get to meet Rin, the hero of this series…

It was always my intention to make this series about bridging worlds and bringing two very different people together. Yumi’s parents, Kentaro and Namika, are like this. Kentaro is from Earth and Namika is from Orihime. I thought it would be fun to repeat the same connection in their daughter.

In this case, I decided to start Rin and Yumi off on shaky ground since he almost kills her more than once in this book before they come to a truce. He’s from a police agency and he’s one of the first people to track her down on Kurai. By the time this quote comes in the story, they’ve already been to hell and back and they still have a long way to go to be friends. Or more…

Want to pre-order CRASH LAND ON KURAI? You can pick it up for a dollar off the retail price now on Amazon.com! Kindle Unlimited subscribers will be able to borrow the book on July 18th.

Pre-order Crash Land on Kurai

Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited on July 18th!
(You’ll be able to choose your bookstore on the following page, if you have not chosen a default Books2Read store already.)

Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you again on Thursday!

The post Teaser Tuesday – Powerful appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Sunday Update – July 9, 2017

Since this past week included a holiday, the week felt very off, but not in a bad way. Monday felt like Tuesday, and several times during the day, I was sure it was Tuesday. Lol. Sigh. Four day weekend can really mess with your head.

Monday we spent the day mostly at home due to rain that came and went throughout the day. No big deal. I got some writing in and relaxing on the couch.

Tuesday was July 4th, Independence Day. We spent it mostly at the pool. Then we picked up our veggie share and cooked out at home for dinner. It was nice hanging with the family and eating outside! We also had some fireworks so we set them off around 9PM and we were done before 9:30 when the kids went to bed.

Wednesday it was back to work! I had a weird morning where everything went wrong, but the rest of the day worked out. Nothing awful happened. It was just one of those days. I got writing done and I took the kids to the pool in the afternoon.

Thursday was not a good day for me. I battled a headache all day. No matter what I did, it did not get better. I drank extra water, extra caffeine. I took Advil. I took a nap. There was just no getting away from it. I went to bed early that day and got very little done.

Friday was much better even though it rained like crazy. (And now that I think of it, the oncoming full moon combined with the weather was probably what caused my headache.) I got some walking in in the morning then grocery shopping. In the afternoon, I took the kids to the pool and it was quite nice, not crowded. Most people probably stayed away because of the morning downpour.

Yesterday was a typical weekend day. I worked while walking in the morning, then I took the kids to the pool in the afternoon.

Today, I’m writing this update from the pool! Ha! We’re here all the time.

WordPress Scheduled Posts Not Publishing

Okay, this has happened enough times, I’ve decided to post about it, to get it out there to the Google Hivemind and Internet in case anyone else has the same problem as me.

Every now and then, I schedule posts on this blog to go live at a future date because it’s convenient. But then they don’t publish. Which is quite inconvenient.

After much hair pulling, searching, and a long conversation with my hosting company, the culprit is the WP SUPER CACHE Plugin. Almost all WordPress installations have it, so I’m pretty sure this is a common problem.

If you find that your posts are NOT publishing when you schedule them to, go to the WP SUPER CACHE plugin settings and DELETE THE CACHE. Just hit the button DELETE CACHE. I promise it won’t screw up your website.

Once the cache is cleared, go back to your post that didn’t publish, and re-schedule it to go live in the next few minutes, then monitor to see if it works and publishes for when you wanted it to go live. The problem should be all cleared up.

It seems I have to do this at least once or twice per year, and if I have to, no doubt other people do too. Hope this helps!

PS) Random featured image up there because I don’t have one made for WordPress issues. It was a bath bomb. Such cool colors!

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